CAIRO: Several countries have begun evacuating their citizens from Sudan as clashes between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) continued in the capital Khartoum and adjoining cities for the ninth day due to disagreement over the RSF’s integration into the army.
According to Sudan’s health ministry, the deadly clashes have left at least 424 people dead and about 3,730 wounded by Saturday.
The Egyptian authorities on Sunday evacuated 436 Egyptian nationals from Sudan as fierce fighting continues in the neighbouring country.
In a statement, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said that the nationals were evacuated via land in coordination with the Sudanese authorities.
According to the statement, the Egyptian diplomatic missions in Khartoum, Port Sudan, and Wadi Halfa area will continue to coordinate with the Egyptian nationals in Sudan to secure their evacuation, reported Xinhua.
The number of Egyptian citizens in Sudan exceeds 10,000, which requires a tight, safe and orderly planned process to ensure their safe evacuation from the conflict-ridden country, the foreign ministry announced earlier in the day.
Since the beginning of the conflict, Egypt’s flag carrier EgyptAir has suspended its flights to and from Sudan’s Khartoum International Airport.
Meanwhile, Tunisia’s Foreign Ministry announced Sunday that the evacuation of its citizens from Sudan’s capital Khartoum will start on Monday.
“In light of the current developments in Sudan, the ministry informs Tunisians abroad that it is closely monitoring, around the clock, the conditions of the Tunisian community residing there,” said a ministry statement.
The statement also said that an ad hoc crisis unit will ensure the evacuation process in coordination with the Tunisian embassy in Khartoum, which has taken necessary and urgent measures to prepare for the evacuation starting from Monday.
In Accra, Ghana’s Foreign Ministry issued a release here Sunday indicating that preparations are also underway to evacuate Ghanaians stranded in Sudan following its military conflict.
The release said the Ghanaian embassy in Egypt with concurrent accreditation to Sudan, together with the Ghana Honourary Consulate in Khartoum, is putting arrangements in place for the evacuation.
“A number of Ghanaian nationals, particularly students, have been affected by the conflict,” said the statement, noting that all of the Ghanaian nationals are safe.
“The government of Ghana joins the international community to appeal to the warring factions to cease fire and allow negotiations to resume for the sake of peace and safety of the people of Sudan,” the release added.
In the meantime, in Rome, Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said all Italian civilians and diplomats who had asked to leave Sudan have been flown out of Khartoum to Djibouti, reported German news agency (dpa).
“I am proud of the teamwork that led to the success of this delicate and complex evacuation operation,” he wrote on Twitter.
Tajani had earlier announced the evacuation of around 200 civilians and embassy staff. About 140 people had Italian citizenship, while there were also Swiss nationals, employees of the Vatican embassy and about 20 other European citizens, he said.
Meanwhile, Spain has also evacuated Spanish nationals and diplomats from Sudan.
Spanish Air Force planes had left Khartoum with citizens and employees of the Spanish embassy aboard, Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares said.
Citizens of other European and Latin American countries were also on the flights which departed without incident, he said.
“We reiterate the call for a ceasefire and resumption of dialogue in Sudan,” he tweeted.
Defence Minister Margarita Robles had earlier said that Spain planned to deploy a total of six aircraft as part of the evacuation operations. – BERNAMA-AGENCIES
